Behind Video, a Web of Questions

In a still from 'Muhammad Movie Trailer,' an elderly man is depicted leading a crackown on Christians.
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By

Dion Nissenbaum,

James Oberman and

Erica Orden

Updated Sept. 13, 2012 9:56 a.m. ET

"Muhammad Movie Trailer," an online video assault on the founder of Islam, has been blamed for spurring violent attacks on U.S. diplomats and missions in Egypt and Libya.

The violence was real. But its spark appears to have been a mixture of half-truths and misrepresentations designed to obscure the filmmaker's identity and the project's aims.

The most incendiary anti-Islamic language in the 14-minute clip appears to be voiced not by the actors, but as poorly synchronized voiceovers. People identifying themselves as cast and crew members said Wednesday they had been duped. The man who said he was behind the movie and characterized himself as an Israeli-American appears to have used a pseudonym.

In a telephone interview with The Wall Street Journal late Tuesday, a man identifying himself as Sam Bacile, a real-estate developer in California who was 52 years old, said he had made the film. Calling himself an Israeli-American backed by Jewish donors, he described Islam as a "cancer."

A user by the name of Sam Bacile posted "Muhammad Movie Trailer" in early July on Google Inc.'s YouTube, where for weeks it appeared to escape notice. Sam Bacile was also the name provided to a reporter by the Washington-based activist who forwarded a link of the video clip to reporters last week, a first step in bringing it to global notice.

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On Wednesday, a records search turned up no references to any men in the U.S. by the name Sam Bacile. Israeli officials said they haven't found any records of an Israeli by that name. The Journal was unable to reach the telephone number again and as of Wednesday, it had been disconnected.

The cellphone number used Tuesday was registered to a user at a home in Cerritos, Calif., where one of the residents was listed in public records as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. A young man who answered the door at that home Wednesday afternoon said a man named Nakoula B. Nakoula lived there. One online casting-call for a desert adventure film, meanwhile, listed two producers—one named Sam Basselley, and another with the name Nakoula.

Efforts to reach Mr. Nakoula were unsuccessful. An apparently middle-aged man who answered the door at the Cerritos home at other times Wednesday said no one by that name lived there.

Separately on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported it had traced a cell number for Sam Bacile to a Los Angeles-area address where it found a Mr. Nakoula. That man said he had managed the company that produced the movie. He told the AP he was a Coptic Christian and that the film's director had been concerned about Muslim treatment of Christian Copts. He denied he was Sam Bacile.

Until June 2011, a person named Nakoula Nakoula had been serving a 21-month prison sentence for bank fraud, according to a Los Angeles prosecutor, citing federal court records. Among that person's aliases, according to court documents, are Mark Basseley Youssef and Youssef M. Basseley. An attorney who represented the Mr. Nakoula who was jailed declined to comment; another didn't return requests for comment.

The mysterious circumstances of the movie's production cast doubt on several claims made by the purported filmmaker, including that the clip was a trailer for a longer movie, and that it was funded with $5 million collected from Jewish donors—an allegation likely to further inflame Muslims who had taken offense with the film.

The low-budget footage includes scenes that depict the prophet Muhammad as a womanizing fraud and child molester. The clip's defamatory references to Islam and Muhammad appeared to be dubbed in.

People who identified themselves as cast and crew members said the film's producer had taken advantage of them. "We are 100% not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose," they said in a statement to CNN.

"We are shocked by the drastic re-writes of the script and lies that were told to all involved. We are deeply saddened by the tragedies that have occurred."

One actor who said he was in the video described filming as a "topsy-turvy" process in which actors got scripts at the last minute. The voiceovers he saw in the finished product were a manipulation of words, Tim Dax said in a Facebook message. His Facebook page showed photos that appeared to match one of the film's characters.

An expired casting notice posted on Backstage.com, a reputable website for casting calls, sought actors for an "historical Arabian Desert adventure film" called "Desert Warrior," naming the producer as Sam Bassiel. It sought men and women to play characters including a lead role of George, "a strong leader, romantic, tyrant, a killer with no remorse, accent."

One of the actresses seen in the clip told the website Gawker.com the script she was given was titled "Desert Warrior" and that the character now known as Muhammad was then called George. Attempts to reach the actress weren't successful.

The spark that elevated the video from the Internet's backwater appears to have been provided by Morris Sadek, an Egyptian-American Coptic activist living in the Washington, D.C., area. Mr. Sadek has been an outspoken anti-Islamic activist in the U.S., where he runs a small group called the National American Coptic Assembly.

On Sept. 6, Mr. Sadek sent an email to journalists around the world promoting a Sept. 11 event held by Rev. Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who previously sparked deadly protests by burning a copy of the Quran. In the email, Mr. Sadek included a link to the 14-minute YouTube clip.

In Egypt, journalists translated some of the footage into Arabic and broadcast it.

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